


tiger and mouse

by obscurityofphylum



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Allison being a good sister, Fluff, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Rehab, kinda angsty, klaus is healing, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23757793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obscurityofphylum/pseuds/obscurityofphylum
Summary: allison visits klaus at rehab just a couple weeks before their twenty-fourth birthday.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	tiger and mouse

allison thanked the man who held the door for her as she cautiously entered the building, dodging a pair of nurses heading out on their lunch break. the front desk woman looked tired and worn, like an old leather book, and allison almost felt bad asking for her help.

as soon as she said her brother's name, the woman scoffed. her long, magenta painted fingernails clacked against the keys loudly as she typed the name into her computer.

"ward c. you need to get a badge." she said, strolling away from her seat to fetch a small, laminated badge. she slipped the paper out of it, and allison was actually surprised when the woman asked her name. that's a first in a while. somebody doesn't know who i am. 

the woman handed her the item gruffly, and allison clipped it onto the front of her shirt. an aide nodded to her.

"please follow me, ma'am. ward c?" he asked. he was dressed in blue scrubs, and his hair was cropped short. allison smiled, trying to keep up with his swift pace as they descended down the hall.

the walls were painted a horrid yellowish-brown that contrasted against metal doors, some standing ajar and allowing allison to hear small, whispered conversations from weathered people sitting on bunk beds. 

in one of the rooms, a woman's shrill screams filled the air as two attendants held her by the shoulders. allison shuddered, looking away. 

it looked more like a prison that a rehab facility, but that's what you get when it's county-funded. an older man in a wheelchair muttered gibberish as she walked past him, and she dodged a shriveled hand that he reached towards her. 

finally, they reached a metal door near the end of the hall that had the letter c painted on it in big, white font. the aide fetched a key card from his pocket, sliding it across the panel. the door clicked, and he opened it, allowing her to step inside.

the room was medium-sized, with four rows of metal bunk beds lined up neatly. it was mostly empty, except for a mismatched group of people sitting on the tile floor playing cards. the deck was all beat up and most of the cards were missing, but the group didn't seem to care.

the aide pointed to one of the bottom beds, where a small form was curled beneath a white cotton blanket. allison smiled her thanks as the man left the room, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

all she could see was messy, slightly curly brown hair peeking out from the top of the blanket, and a hand with the word "hello" tattooed on it in big letters. she gently pulled back a little bit of the blanket, rubbing his arm softly.

"hey, klaus. klaus, it's me." she spoke softly, but klaus still flinched. despite being the loudest and most affection of the children growing up, he was also the most skittish out of the bunch. it must come from trying to hide from the ghosts, allison thought. 

once he got over his initial panic, he rubbed his eyes with the back of a tattooed hand, sitting up shakily. a cluster of three plastic hospital bracelets filled his wrist, leaving red imprints on his bruised skin. 

she remembers each hospital call over the past few weeks. he had been revived from an overdose yet again in the emergency room, then sent to the hospital to recover. and now, here he was, still drowsy and shivering with chills. 

she was his emergency contact by default, and she got a call maybe once a week that klaus had overdosed somewhere and had to be narcanned back to life, a needle still hanging out of his arm the whole time.

this time had been worse. he had stopped breathing for almost four minutes, and no matter how hard allison tried not to, she couldn't help but imagine her brother, blue-faced on a gurney as paramedics rushed to kickstart his lungs. 

he blinked a little bit, getting a grip on his surroundings before cocking his head at allison confusedly.

"uh... hi?" he said inquisitively. allison couldn't help but notice how his eyes were red and puffy, most likely from crying. he was still wearing what he came in with a couple days ago; a faded shirt of some band she didn't know and black jeans, ripped at the knee. 

"hey, buddy. i just came to see you. i heard you had a tough week." allison said, trying to hide her concern.

he looked worse than the last time she saw him. it was september now, and the last time she had seen him was late april. 

his hair was grown out, not necessarily long but more messy and unkempt. she remembered growing up, putting on performances with diego just to distract klaus into sitting still so grace could cut his hair. no matter how often grace combed it back, it always stuck on messily and just even more reinforced his position as the wild child.

he was stick thin. he had always been the smallest out of the bunch, even compared to vanya and ben. klaus's skin was littered with old markings, some of them tattoos, most of them oddly shaped scars. she frowned at his bare forearms, a constant reminder of bathroom doors being kicked down by luther, only to find klaus with knives he'd thieved from diego's room. 

it had been a while since the last time she'd seen that happen. she definitely didn't miss the sight of grace stitching long lines of sutures into fifteen-year-old klaus's upturned arm, never losing her pearly white smile as klaus grimaced and muffled his whimpers of pain. 

"m-yeah. tough week." klaus yawned. even though she knew it wasn't right, some part of her was angry with him. angry at the fact that he was the only one who had been able to run away, to just forget everything. everything was gone as soon as a pill dissolved on his tongue. 

her eyes strayed down to his arm again, this time noticing a different detail. his veins were bruised an ugly purple-yellow, sunken into his inner elbows and littered with tiny, reddened dots.

"what are these?" she asked softly, holding his arm in her hand. she didn't miss the way he flinched at the little bit of contact. klaus's eyes went wide, and he began to struggle away from her grip futilely, only to give up as her grip grew firm. 

"klaus... are you injecting now?" she asked, a motherly tone of disappoint lacing her voice. 

"allison-" klaus mumbled, staring down at his lap.

"klaus. look at me." her brother didn't look up, his cheeks burning bright pink with the heat of allison's stare on him. 

"now." she muttered through gritted teeth. he glanced up, and she immediately felt bad. his eyes were filling with tears, pooling beneath hazel irises and threatening to spill over. 

"it's not-" 

"answer my question." 

"yes, yeah, i guess. i dunno. pills don't do it for me anymore." he said finally, yanking his arm free of her grip. he stared back down at his lap, but didn’t move away when allison placed her perfectly manicured hand over his thin, bruised one.

“hey. come here. i’m not mad at you, i’m just sad to see you upset.” allison picked her words carefully, beckoning klaus for a hug. he all but jumped into her arms, blanket falling off his frail shoulders. 

allison rubbed his back, whispering softly. she could feel each knob of his spine under her palm, jutting out like rocks. 

“hey. remember when we were little, and we would play forest?” she said suddenly, surprising herself. klaus mumbled a little ‘mhm’ from where he was buried in her shirt. 

“you were klaus the mouse, and me and luther pretended to be tigers trying to hunt for food. remember that? remember us chasing you across the courtyard all day?” allison chuckled at the memory of six-year-old klaus, legs flying in the wind as he nimbly raced across the brick path to hide behind grace’s skirt.

but, with the good memories, always came bad ones. the angry, belligerent shell of her brother, newly seventeen, punching through the drywall in the kitchen. last time she was home, there was still a painting covering that one spot. 

allison pulled away a little bit, and klaus looked up at her. she brushed away a falling tear from his cheek with her thumb, smiling reassuredly through her own watering eyes.

“it’s gonna be okay. you just need to trust me, okay?” she promised, holding klaus’s hand. klaus forced a smile, nodding weakly. 

they talked for a little while afterwards, reminiscing, catching up. talking about claire and patrick, playfully making fun of diego, anything that could connect them.

allison felt herself smile sadly as she returned her badge to the front desk, the tired attendant replaced by an energetic young man. 

no matter how hard it was to leave him there, to not sign him out and take him home with her, she knew he needed it. diego had tried to bring him home before. the second diego turned his back, klaus was gone. they didn’t see him for nearly a month. 

she didn’t want things like that to happen again. she wanted klaus to feel like he could stay in one place, not constantly jumping and running, forever skittish and broken.

the sun hit her face as she left the center, and she watched as a group of children skirted past her, tussling playfully on the sidewalk. 

one of them growled like a tiger, and they broke into giggles. allison couldn’t help but giggle herself at the coincidence.


End file.
